National Art Library

[1] The NAL is open to the public, and as a closed reference library, items must be requested through the staff and cannot be removed from the reading room.

[4] The current mission of the NAL includes making information about art history and practice widely available, and aims to serve both national and international communities.

[5] What is today the NAL was originally founded in 1837 as the library for the Government School of Design,[6] where it primarily served as an educational tool for craftsmen to learn techniques and aesthetics.

[7] Starting in the 1970s and continuing today, students make up a large percentage of patrons visiting the NAL for educational and artistic purposes.

[6] Collection of particularly experimental and contemporary artist's books began in the 1980s with the work of Jan van der Wateren, who served as the Chief Librarian.

For example, the NAL cataloging methods include noting the number of illustrations in a given work, as well as detailing the physical elements of the books in its collections, due to the NAL's focus on the book as object and their value as resources for art history and the history of craft and design.

[18] The collection also contains books created by artists such as Sol Lewitt, Ed Ruscha, Édouard Manet, and David Hockney.

Among the NAL's other unique holdings are the Dyce & Forster collection, auction sale catalogues, calligraphy, chapbooks, children's books, comics, documentary manuscripts, early printed books, exhibition catalogues, fine bindings, illuminated manuscripts, and trade literature.

[19] The National Art Library offers the below services for patrons with disabilities:[20] More information on accessibility to the V&A, NAL, and study rooms can be found on the V&A website, including a digital map[21] of each floor of the museum.